Saturday, December 06, 2003 - Apache Junction, Arizona, USA
GAY AND LESBIAN ADOPTION
The Concerned Women for America (CWA) continues to undermine gay adoptions. Here are their most recent assertions:
“Children need both mothers and fathers. It is wrong to create fatherless or motherless families by design. This effort is being driven by the desires of adults, not the needs of children. The drive for homosexual 'marriage' leads to destruction of the gold standard for custody and adoption. The question should be: 'What is in the best interests of the child?' The answer is: 'Place children, whenever possible, in a married, mom-and-dad household.'”
Let’s take a look at the record. Today, about 60% of the nation’s adoption agencies now accept applications from gay men and lesbian women. That’s up from 0% ten years ago. The ONLY resistance to gay adoption is from church-affiliated agencies. The Rocky Mountain News states: “as many as 14 million children in the US are being raised by at least one parent who is homosexual.”
Despite what the CWA says, it’s been established that gays and lesbians provide a loving home for children who otherwise would be in institutions or foster care. In fact, all research to date has reached the same unequivocal conclusion about gay parenting: the children of gay parents grow up as successfully as the children of heterosexual parents. In fact, not a single study has found the children of gay parents to be disadvantaged because of their parents' sexual orientation. Good parenting is not influenced by sexual orientation. Rather, it is influenced most profoundly by a parent's ability to create a loving and nurturing home ~ an ability that does not depend on whether a parent is gay or straight.
There is another dismal fact that the CWA overlooks in its attempt to undermine gay and lesbian adoption. The simple fact that thousands of children in this country who come from 'normal' heterosexual familes end up abused, taken from neglectful parents, are caged, starved and even killed. CPA workloads are so high and case workers so overworked, abuse cases slip through the cracks and children suffer. Somehow, all this does not add up to "what is in the best interest of the child." The best interest of the child should be a home where the child receives love, affection, and attention from parents, gay or straight, that put the child's needs ahead of their own.
The CWA’s position isn’t helping children, it’s hurting them by limiting adoption opportunities with their discriminatory rhetoric. Considering the facts, Adam Pertman, Executive Director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute had this to say: “The reality on the ground is way outpacing the policy debate.”
©2003 Marcia Ellen "Happy" Beevre
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